Q. A 50 year-old sun tanned female asks “Will the ABCs remove my wrinkles and make me look younger?”

ANSWER

If left in the sun, a rubber band becomes limp. And in similar ways, wrinkles represent sun damaged skin and a loss of healthy elastic tissue in the dermis. The overlying skin surface may be thinned, scaly, and discolored. Remember that the skin barrier may be disrupted and depleted in chronically sun damaged skin. This type of skin damage takes years to develop.

If you have wrinkles, the ABC’s can help in two ways: First, wrinkles always look worse when your skin is dry. Adequate skin hydration enhances overall skin structure so that wrinkled areas are physically lifted and softened in appearance. Hydrated skin is also less scaly and thicker looking. Second, most anti-wrinkle medications cause some type of skin irritation. Think about it: Your wrinkled aged skin barrier is already damaged, and then you apply irritating Retin-A™, Renova™, Tazorac™, Vitamin C, lipoic acid, or glycolic acid. What happens? The anti-wrinkle medicines cause irritation and you either quit or become frustrated. At this point, you need true moisturization and real ABC 1 + 2 therapy. This is where genuine clinical lipid skin moisturizing and carefully applied ABC’s can help.

To prevent soap stripping of vital skin lipids, I suggest “twice a day” cleansing with True Moisture® Clinical Lipid Therapy® Rinse Optional Cleanser C. Plus, either a half an hour before or a half an hour after applying the anti-aging medications, apply True Moisture Clinical Lipid Therapy® Gentle Facial Lotion, to moisturize your sun damaged face without blocking pores. You can apply True Moisture® Clinical Lipid Therapy® Cream B to moisturize non-face areas like the arms, hands, neck, and chest. Physiologic lipid skin moisturization will allow you to use the anti-wrinkle agents to their maximum potential, so that you can achieve the skin rejuvenating results you want from glycolic acid, lipoic acid, Kinerase™, Tazorac™, Avage™, Renova™, or Retin-A™. These same ABC moisturizing principles can also keep you well-moisturized while undergoing drying precancer therapy with topical medications such as Efudex™, Fluoroplex™, Carac™, Solaraze™, or Aldara™. You will also find the ABC Method helpful when using drying skin bleaching medications.